Guardian

...but ultimately, as much as they yearn for it, none of the novel’s central characters really deserve easy absolution. And yet the beautiful writing and nuanced storytelling invites compassion; such is the power of Kwon’s narrative.

Guardian

Handled with less inventive prose, a book like this might feel like a series of Stephen King-ish portraits of small people being horrible. But McGregor’s too inventive a writer not to dazzle and surprise, to create moments that confound and stir.

Guardian

That is one of several noble notions in this book. Everyone who still believes we can rescue the republic should embrace all of them. “Hope really is a choice,” says the author, “and a practical habit.”

NY Times

Spiced with foreshadowings, packed with big issues from Aids to the rise of the far right, and tempered by strategic reticence, this novel compels the reader’s attention as consistently as it entertains.

Guardian

Dongala has written an unrelentingly bleak story, occasionally lightened by Mad Dog's laughable pronouncements, and he grabs us from the start with a language that is rude and raw (Mad Dog's) and lyrical (Laokolé's) in Maria Louise Ascher's translation from the author's French.

Guardian

Jen’s relationships with her elder daughter and her own mother get less page time in “Whistle,” but they are equally credible. In fact, the only underdrawn character is Jen’s husband/Lana’s dad. He does have a name, but it’s barely worth recalling...

Star Tribune

Caroline’s Bikini is the long-winded story of Emily loving Evan loving Caroline – and although it might seem unlikely, given the convolutions of the writing, it turns out to be a really superb, very readable novel. I suppose I am, you know, hopelessly in love with it.

Guardian

All of which makes sense but is just not compelling enough to justify the mystification that precedes it. It would have been preferable had Mr. Schama announced his intentions at the outset, and readers are advised to read the afterword first.

Guardian

This whole section is reminiscent of Tyler’s best work, such as Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Unfortunately, the dark edge of Clock Dance’s early pages soon gives way to a much more sentimental narrative.

Guardian

Although both parts are interesting, I don’t quite agree with Frank’s overarching thesis that they are linked components of the same story. Isn’t the imperative to halt our possibly fatal march to annihilation via human-made environmental destruction the same regardless of extraterrestrial life?

NY Times

This tight novel, made up of 10 parts and 65 compact chapters, employs a non-linear narrative, moving between England in 1936 and the Dominican childhood of Gwendolen, his protagonist, with forays into the intervening years. There is no shortage of biographical material on Rhys.

Guardian

Looking for truth in the courtroom sense in Sedaris’s essays has always been a mug’s game, missing the point. Truthfulness, though – emotional, spiritual – he’s always traded on these. And with Calypso, he’s given us his most truthful work yet.

NPR

Hermione Hoby captures it all in her debut novel, Neon in Daylight, a smart, shimmering study of youthful self-discovery and the power of place, unfurling over the course of a single summer in the city.

Guardian

But here in this new collection of stories I’m having a problem. It feels as if it’s to do with liking the characters, but perhaps it’s just that the rhythm of the writing has lost its elasticity somewhere.

Guardian

The plot? Not this novel’s particular strength. Although the setups are plausible and gripping, characters make too many credulity-straining choices that are explicable only in the contrived service of heightening drama...Still, Karjel offers ample pleasures along the way.

NY Times

There There itself is a kind of dance. Even in its tragic details, it is lyrical and playful, shaking and shimmering with energy. The novel dips into the tiniest personal details and sweeps across history.